The present disclosure relates generally to improving processes in the field of ambient condition management. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to monitoring and decision support with respect to atmospheric ammonia concentrations in ammonia-critical operations.
Farm animal housing, such as poultry houses, are prone to collect pollutants like dust, pathogens, microorganisms, and gases such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. These pollutants can accumulate in quantities that become noxious and deleterious to the health of livestock.
Additionally, environments such as oil and gas fields may experience high levels of gaseous pollutants and/or toxins. These pollutants can accumulate in quantities that become dangerous for human beings.
Atmospheric ammonia is a known major aerial pollutant for poultry houses. Ammonia release is caused by the interaction of fecal content of litter, moisture, and temperature. Several studies have shown that ammonia can reduce bird growth performance, increase susceptibility to diseases, and increase subsequent mortality. Therefore, poultry farmers often struggle with determining how best to design a poultry house in a manner that will prevent ammonia accumulation without compromising adequate shelter for the poultry. Currently, farmers typically rely on passive or active ventilation to mitigate atmospheric ammonia. However, these ventilation systems lack proper feedback mechanisms and risk exchanging air too frequently or not enough, risking a reduction in fertilizer value due to unnecessary ammonia loss or risking a reduction in poultry health due to unnecessary ammonia buildup.
Automated fans may vent excess ammonia only as needed, but these systems typically do not provide farmers with appropriate feedback mechanisms regarding when, or even whether, the ventilation system should engage. For farmers to engage in ammonia monitoring, they currently must be on site at the poultry house, which takes extra time and may result in a delay wherein unwanted levels of atmospheric ammonia may go unnoticed.
Further, as ammonia is a noxious gas for humans and can adversely affect other industrial processes when present in abundant quantities, it may be desirable to apply these gas ventilation technologies to other industrial fields where workers or materials sensitive to the presence of ammonia may be present. For example, ammonia monitoring and ventilation may be advantageous to oil and gas production, agricultural farming, and refrigeration systems where ammonia management may affect physical health or product performance. Even in applications that are outdoors, automatic ventilation may be desirable to prevent dangerous ambient levels of pollutants. When ventilation control may not be readily available, the subject matter of the present disclosure may still be very useful to indicate ambient levels of pollutants.
Therefore, what is needed is a system for monitoring gas conditions that will remotely notify the user via wireless communications channels of potentially problematic conditions, provide the user with certain response options, determine the user's selected response, and execute the user's response accordingly. The system may be an automated ventilation system in some embodiments. Over ninety-five percent of farmers carry cellular devices or have an Internet-connected computer system. As such, an automated ventilation system of this type would provide farmers a low-cost method to manage atmospheric ammonia and other concentrations of pollutant gases in their livestock facilities, thereby increasing the health and subsequent yield of livestock.
A gas concentration management system may be further desirable in the field of absorption and vapor-compression refrigeration where ammonia serves as a coolant. As refrigeration systems must manage the content of ammonia in order to effect proper cooling, an automated gas management system can be used to effectively notify a user of gas concentrations that deviate from an optimal range and peremptorily or automatically adjust gas concentrations by activating or deactivating ventilation systems to release or stop the release of pressurized anhydrous ammonia, respectively.